As If the Platypus Couldn't Get Any Weirder (gizmodo)
George Dvorsky
Friday 12:30PM
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Filed to: Platypuses
The platypus is nature’s crazy quilt, as this strange creature looks like about a half-dozen different animals all rolled into one. Turns out that platypuses were hiding yet another conspicuous feature: THEY CAN FREAKIN’ GLOW IN THE DARK.
It’s not enough to be a mammal who lays eggs, sports a duck-like bill and webbed feet, hunts using electroreception, and wields venomous spurs. The platypus also glows green under ultraviolet light. Because of course it does. Details of this unexpected discovery were published earlier this month in the science journal Mammalia.
The platypus now joins a very exclusive club, as it’s one of only three known biofluorescent mammals, the other two being opossums and flying squirrels. That said, the platypus does stand alone as the only known monotreme, or egg-laying mammal, capable of pulling off this trick (the only other extant monotremes are four species of echidna). Of course, biofluorescence and bioluminescence is seen in many other organisms, such as fungi, fish, phytoplankton, reptiles, amphibians, and at least one species of tardigrade.
The same team involved in the new study, led by biologist Paula Spaeth Anich from Northland College, were the ones who discovered biofluorescence in flying squirrels last year. The discovery happened by accident during night surveys of lichens. Their field observations were later confirmed with specimens of flying squirrels kept at a museum.
With this in mind, the scientists decided to try their luck with another nocturnal-crepuscular mammal. Platypuses, like the flying squirrel (and opossums, too), are active during the dim hours of dawn, dusk, and overnight. For the new study, the team analyzed three museum platypus specimens (two males and one female) sourced from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the University of Nebraska State Museum (the IUCN Red List currently describes the platypus as a near threatened species, and with a population trend in decline).
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more: https://gizmodo.com/as-if-the-platypus-couldn-t-get-any-weirder-1845529134?utm_source=pocket-newtab
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